HAR-SOFTWARE'S REVIEW OF BALL BLAZING FANTASY
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Ball Blazing Fantasy (aka BBF) is a cool sensitive arcade which makes
me thinks of an old game called something like Mazeballs.  Looks swish,
and has an almost incomparable sensitivity! This game just had to be
reviewed!

BBF is one of the games that keeps you playing over and over again, until
you have it right.

First thoughts:
BBF had to do something with balls, that was for sure. But the graphics,
gameplay and story are only revealed right at the end.  Only few topics on
QBasicNews or elsewhere were about BBF and didn't contain much of
extraordinary value. However, when Kentauri brought out the game, a lot of
attention was given to it on many different forums. Suggestions, remarks,
complaints, congratulations... they all seemed to appear from nothing.
BBF is nonetheless the best game Kentauri made so far, and I think that
says enough about Kentauri itself, a very experienced group of programmers.
But now, BBF has been called Kentauri's best game, but let's get on with
the review!

Statistics
Graphics: 75%
The graphics look very neat and by the looks it seems they have been 
developed carefully. This carefully developing sprites resulted in what 
they probably wanted: non-gridded sprites. The sprites are made so, that
the game hardly looks gridlocked, or tile-based anymore! Furthermore the
sprites are very realistic and the objects look very cool and intruiging.
The menus and pictures of the game also are excellent, not too contrasting.

Gameplay: 70%
The game itself runs fine on fast computers as well as on slow computers. 
Not too slow of course! The current maximum framerate is at 18 fps, but I 
heard Kentauri perhaps wanted to changed the fps limit. Despite this limit, 
the game seems to run souple and fast. However, one drawback is the keys 
being very sensitive. Short, quick taps are needed if you want to survive 
in the game. But some people haven't got such quick fingers and will become 
frustrated from the very sensitive buttons. Also, there's no pause-feature 
in the game and people having to go to the bathroom have to lose a life
before the game pauses. One small point which has to be said is that the
tile-collision sometimes goes crazy and kills you off for nothing.

Sound: 60%
Gave full points for the nice background music, but only 10% for the
sound effects. The background music is MIDI and requires specific drivers
which not everyone has. But despite this, the midi's sound excellent in the
game and give it a feeling of atmosphere. Most midis are generally midi
versions of well-known songs, such as 'All that she wants', from Ace of
Base, or 'Paranoid Android' of Radiohead. No complaints about the music,
but the sound effects are awful, to be honest! There're no digital sound
effects in the game, but instead, the game uses the pc speaker to generate
bleeping sounds, which after a while become very irritating. So here's one
point to improve! :)

Released Source: 0%
Simple, no doubt. There was no source in the package.

Difficulty: 95%
The game starts notifyingly easier than the later levels, but still isn't
easy! Due to the sensitivity of the controls the game is hard to play. The
addition of enemies and turrets, and even puzzles makes it even harder, but
also more challenging. That's the point the game should have it from,
challenge. The game isn't easy but still isn't too hard to keep the player
trying and trying again and again.

Universality: 70%
The intent of the quest is to gather minerals from different worlds, which
is an intent that is rarely seen in games. Thus very unique. The idea of
the football style game as extra game-mode is superb. Fun for two players,
less for one as the computer tends to be hard to beat. The game scores more
points at this point as it can also be played on slower computers without
an almost-unplayably-low framerate.

External Documentation: 20%
The game comes with a readme.txt file which answers some questions about
the game, like faq. There's also some kind of logbook but the thing I really
miss here is a manual. Since there's no manual the user has to find out the
keys and the purpose of the game all by himself. No very user-friendly,
but still.

Internal Documentation: 80%
All stuff missing in the external documentation is available here. In the
in-game menu Instructions, there is and entire manual about the keys,
different types of games and much more. This really is good, the only thing
missing on some pages were images, although there are images on some pages
like on the 'Status bar' page. More images could've done well. But this too
is splendid!

Controls: 65%
The controls aren't customizable, but easy to find out by reading readme.txt
or just by pressing all buttons :). There're not many controls needed for
the game, which of course influences user-friendlyness on a positive way.

Story/Progression: 60%
The story is somewhat fictionous, but quite interesting. The progression
in the game really shows itself by changing tilesets every 4 maps and
increasing difficulty. About the Ball Blazing Tournament, the football mode,
there is a small progression, which is that you have to play 4 matches on
different worlds and against increasingly difficult opponents. You begin
against one of the easiest, then at the end you have to play against a
'hidden' ball which has everything all previous balls have combined. This
really is quite fun!

Action "Feel": 70%
The game contains a simple sort of 'action' in the shape of enemies and
turrets. In the beginning they seem easy to avoid, but later in the game
they're coming up in tactically formed groups which takes you into quite
some action. The only drawback is that you can't really 'feel' the action.

Longevity: 85%
This game can really keep you busy for a long while! :) Now it contains 16
levels in 4 different worlds, but still very hard to reach the end of the
game. If you can't get past a level, you'll probably leave it be for a
while, then return to it and try again. However, this game still is quite
worth the trying even if you don't have soft fingertips...

The Total Mark
Using a determined set of calculations, the game's total score will now be
calculated... ooow... tension... ;)
Graphics: 75% x 25 = 18.75%
Gameplay: 70% x 20 = 14.00%
Sound: 60% x 10 = 6.00%
Released Source: 0% x 1 = 0.00%
Difficulty: 95% x 5 = 4.75%
Universality: 70% x 3 = 2.10%
Ext. Documentation: 20% x 2 = 0.40%
Int. Documentation: 80% x 2 = 1.60%
Controls: 65% x 5 = 3.25%
Story/Progression: 60% x 12 = 7.20%
Action "Feel": 70% x 15 = 10.50%
Longevity: 85% x 5 = 4.25%
Total: 72.80%

Final Words
How do you like that? 72.80%, which means the game has been an excellent
effort and is bound to be in the top of the best games.  In this way, I
disagree with Lachie with his statement that this might be an idiotical
game! Well done Kentauri!

Game review done by Neo Deus Ex Machina